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Bianca Rodriguez-Holiday: La Serna Student by day cosplayer by night
By Alexis Heard

Bianca Rodriguez-Holiday is a normal La Serna Lancer who enjoys art, spending time with her friends and bringing fictional characters to life through cosplay. She has 1,306 followers on her cosplay account and currently 12.3k fans on her other social media platform.

Rodriguez-Holiday first discovered cosplay at a club on La Serna’s campus. “There was a cosplay club at La Serna my freshmen year. I had never really heard of cosplay and I got into it because of it.”

Her parents at first were unsure about their daughter pursuing that path. “I remember when I first told my parents, they were like ‘Why would you want to do that?’ They wanted me to focus more on my art and weren’t sure if I could juggle art, school, and cosplay,” Rodriguez-Holiday said.

Rodriguez-Holiday has learned how to properly balance her school life with her personal life. “I have no trouble with homework,” she said. “I get it done throughout the week, my classes aren’t hard, plus constantly drawing all the time and I cosplay three times a month.”

When it comes to choosing the next character she will cosplay next, Rodriguez doesn’t open up her computer and search up a random character. Rodriguez-Holiday said she finds herself in a long thinking process on when she can bring the character to life right off the pages. “It depends really. In the past I would choose characters based on how much I was fond of them. The first two were from a comic I liked and the characters now I find myself attached to.”

When it comes to finding the perfect outfit for cosplay, Rodriguez-Holiday usually finds herself shopping at four stores; Old Navy, Target, Savers, and Amazon. But to buy an entire outfit, Rodriguez-Holiday shops at alliexpress.com. She said that dealing with wigs can be a struggle sometimes but after a few years, one can learn to master the trade. “I buy my wigs from Amazon, a good quality but not too expensive,” she explained. “I keep my wigs in a shelving unit along with my cosplay props.”

Since cosplay can be expensive at sometimes, Rodriguez-Holiday said she earns money through chores. With her allowance, she is able to buy whatever she wants as long as it isn’t too pricey.

Many fellow cosplayers often meet up at conventions, such as Wondercon and Amine Impulse. “From experience, going with people is much better than going alone,” Rodriguez-Holiday said. “I honestly enjoy having a group theme with others. Being out of costume isn’t that much fun because you are not able to talk to as many people.”

With the power of editing, Rodriguez-Holiday is able to create dazzling photos of herself in costume. “The editing apps I use are Sketchbook Express, which basically works like Photoshop, Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom,” she said.

Out of all the cosplays Rodriguez-Holiday has bought to life, Kido Tsubomi from the anime Kagerou has been her least favorite. “I almost don’t feel like I suit the character. This is quite difficult since she is my favorite from the series. I feel sad that I can’t get her makeup right. My face and makeup do not suit her,” she said. She does have a favorite character, however. “My favorite cosplay is my Vriska Serket cosplay because I have always loved her character and development throughout the webcomic she is in and I love her design as well.”

When asked about being a representative as a person of color in the cosplay community Rodriguez-Holiday explained, “When it comes to being a person of color in the community, it can be discouraging at times not to have the character’s skin complexion because they are usually either white or Asian because it’s an anime or cartoon. It’s hard to cosplay a character when you know you aren’t their color. In the community, it is heavy influenced by accuracy and when you are not the’right color’ skin for that character, some people have the mindset that you can not be a certain character because of your race. Of course, not everyone is like that, but there are still a few that hold these beliefs.”

Rodriguez-Holiday plans on continuing to do cosplay through her senior year and hopes to start it up again once she has adjusted to life in college. As the start of 2019, she plans to attend Anime Impulse 2k19 and Wondercon 2k19.